


Memories that don’t fade away

by rosalie16334



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 17:37:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11041002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosalie16334/pseuds/rosalie16334
Summary: What was Daryl's life before the apocalypse like? Was it better or worse? Well, I guess, he can tell us his story and we can judge then.





	Memories that don’t fade away

I want to forget the day Merle was gone. I woke up to the moans of my father who was probably suffering from a hangover from last night’s debauch.  
\- Merle! Where are my tablets? Wake up, you son of a bitch! Where are you? MERLE!  
I tried to close my eyes back and fall asleep, but my father kept shouting until I heard his heavy steps approaching our door. I turned my face towards the wall hoping that he will wake only Merle, who was lying in the matrass by the other wall.  
\- I said get up, Merle! – he approached him and give the heavy hit with his shoe on his back.  
\- Where the hell is this little punk? Hey, get up when your father speaks to you!  
I quickly rose from the floor and realized that what I thought was Merle was actually a piece of clothes crumpled together under the blanket.  
\- I am asking where is your brother?  
\- I don’t know.  
\- Then get up and find my pills! My head is going to explode.  
I did not know where to find the pills. Merle used to deal with our father when he was drunk. And I did not know that my father used to whip Merle with a knout when he was angry. Since Merle was no longer there and my father had to pour his anger out on somebody, that day I was there for the first time kneeling before my father while he whipped me. I understood why Merle left.

I remember how I run from our home one day deep into the forest. The forest was always been mysterious and frightening place for me when I was too little. I thought that those who go into the forest will never come back as wild vicious animals that lived there would eat them. However, on that evening our house seemed even a more frightening place for me and my father seemed worse than the cruelest animal on earth, so I kept running deeper and deeper into the woods until I totally run out of breath and my feet could no longer carry me. It was already dark in the woods and my child’s mind started to draw the images of all the monsters that could be living there, so I hid behind the large tree and closed my eyes shaking from fear and cold waiting for someone to come for me. Oh, I remember every single moment of that long and dark night… I opened my eyes to the bright sunlight playing on my face through leaves. The freezing cold of an early morning when the cold is especially severe made me shiver. The feeling of hunger that was not satisfied by wild berries and a small mouse meat made me feel even worse. But one thing was clear: I survived one more night alone in the forests. That was the fifth night since my escape from home. Although I really wanted to go back the next morning after my escape, I was not able to find a way back, I got too far from the familiar parts of the wood. However, I felt different in the forest then. The forest was no longer the place where I was afraid, but rather it became a source of protection. I started noticing many signs that the forest was leaving me: the footprints of a squirrel that just recently run over the ground to the far tree, the abandoned burrow that could serve me as a shelter, the sharp tree branch that could be used to defend myself. The forest was alive and it was willing to help me. I survived for nine nights in the forest and finally, was able to find my way back home. When I returned I was different and since then I kept going into the forest. It taught me to survive, in fact, with time I figured out that forest could feed me and sustain me even better than my father did, but even more importantly, it taught me to fight my fears. 

I remember the day Merle returned. I was already seventeen by that time. He was riding a bike and brought some stuff home, like an old computer and a TV set. I do not remember whether I was happy to see him again or not, but I remember how he called me into our room and showed a pack of money saying:  
\- Look, kid, I was not doing nothing out there, unlike you. I came here after you, I need your help and we will be able to make good money out of my business.  
\- You propose me to leave our father and just go away?  
\- You need to move on, kid. Look at yourself! You became a man now, and you cannot stick to your father forever. What good did he do to you? Look at the conditions that you are living in.  
\- I thought that you returned to stay with us, to help us. This is partially your fault that we live in such conditions!  
\- I understand what you feel now, but you also have to understand that you should not stick to people who won’t do a thing for your well-being. I returned for this goddamn place because I am the only person who cares about you. We will not leave our father with nothing. I brought enough money for him, so he might buy all the drinks he wants and he will hopefully drink himself to death at last.  
I could no longer listen to him and went out of the house back to the forests.

I want to forget the night I left my father following my brother Merle. On the day before I went to the Charlie’s shop, where I had a part time job carrying his delivered products and helping with other minor tasks. After I’ve been lifting packs of alcohol and other drinks for a half of the day and was cleaning his storage for another half, he finally said I was not going to be paid a cent for the work I’ve done.  
\- Your father owes me from the last month and since he doesn’t want to return anything, you will return for him, - he said.  
\- I am not responsible for your stupidity to lend my father, you know him well too. I have earned my money for the work I did today, so pay me now.  
\- Oh, you didn’t earn a shit, even my paralyzed father would have cleaned that place better that you. You should thank me that I give you at least some work or otherwise you would have long been in jail. I wonder how your imbecile brother is not in jail yet? That is the most suitable place for…  
I’ve landed my fist right on his nose before he could finish his sentence. On my way out through the back door I’ve pushed couple of packs with beer, so they smashed on the floor:  
\- You’re right, this place is as dirty as a pigsty.  
I went straight back home trying not to think of what I can to do to my father, but when I came in, I found him lying crouched on the little piece of what was left of sofa. He saw me and wanted to say something, but it seemed that he changed his mind seeing my angry face. My father was not as powerful and aggressive as he once was. I thought that at the end of the day I would not change anything even if I beat him, so I just went to the other room and tried to forget what has happened that day. It is not the only time I was treated as a dreg of society. 

Late at night I woke from someone banging on the door:  
\- Open the door! This is a sheriff! Open the door now!  
Sheriff was the man whom my father feared the most in this town, as he was on sheriff’s account for a long time now. I opened the door and the sheriff with his assistant slowly entered the room.  
\- Dixons, I have a double complaint on you from Mr. Charlie Hitchens. He claim that you, Daryl, have waited for him on the corner of the street, cruelly beaten him and robbed him of $1200 that he was carrying. Unfortunately, he was not able to see the face of the robber, but he is more than sure that it was you. He has two witnesses that saw how you had argument with him and how you punched him several hours before the incident. And you, Mr. Dixon, owe him $200 which is proven by an agreement you signed with him. So I have very good reasons to arrest you both to continue my investigation at the office.  
\- He is lying, Sheriff. I was at home the whole evening and my father can confirm that.  
\- Oh, really? Then I must pay even more attention to your father. Come on, Mr. Dixon, we will continue our conversation at the police office. If you confirm that Daryl was at home, I cannot deal with him right now, but you have to explain your debt to Mr. Hitchens in a more detail.  
I knew my father was afraid of the sheriff, but I never knew how much he was pliable to sheriff’s threats.  
\- Wait, Mr. Sheriff… What are you talking about? I am not confirming anything, I didn’t see Daryl tonight… I was sleeping… And I do not owe Charlie a cent, that prick is making everything up.  
\- Well, then I am afraid that Daryl will go with us, and I do not think that you will get away easy with this, kid.  
\- Father, are you kidding me?! What does that mean you haven’t seen me?  
I only remember grabbing him by the throat and being dragged away by the sheriff and his assistant. The more I spoke of my innocence, the more they were assured of the opposite. Soon I understood that this world was not made for the people like me, in this world the more we resisted, the deeper we drowned, so probably the best way was to stop resisting, at least I would drown without pain.  
Merle saved me from the jail. As far as I know, he bribed the sheriff to let me out and on that night we both left the town and all its people behind.  
\- I told you, Daryl. We have only each other in this world, that’s why we should stick together, we should watch each other’s back. It’s a pity, though, that I had to give the sheriff almost all I had from that prick, Charlie.  
\- It was you who beat him?!  
\- Oh, he deserved that, don’t you think? Unfortunately, you don’t have balls to beat him by yourself, but that’s why older brothers are needed, eh?

I remember the journeys we’ve been on, the troubles we’ve went through and all that time we did not need anyone, and the world did not need us neither. But when the strange things started to happen to people, when I saw parent eating their children alive, when people turned into monsters worse than those I imagined long ago in the forests, when those who were alive became even worse than zombies, at that time I remember what my brother told me:  
\- Keep your head up, brother. You know what the good thig about all this chaos and zombies is? We might have been nothing previously, but in this new world, I promise you, we will be the Kings!


End file.
